The Tribune

By FARRAH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

A RELATIVE of a Cuban woman who is allegedly being detained at an immigration facility in the country is appealing to officials to allow her to speak with her loved one.

The woman is also asking immigration officers to allow her family member, who she says is like a daughter to her, to stay in The Bahamas temporarily so she is not deported back to her home country where she claims she faces definite imprisonment.

Iliana Perez said she is seeking answers after she was made to understand that her 22-year-old cousin, Adriana Maria Caro, was being detained at a detention facility or safe house in the country after the vessel she left Cuba on capsized in Bahamian waters off Cay Sal Bank early last month.

According to a statement posted on the Royal Bahamas Defence Force’s Facebook page, after one of their ships sighted the capsized vessel on March 4, they retrieved 12 Cuban nationals, along with another deceased individual. The RBDF said after the rescue mission they returned to the Coral Harbour base with the Cuban nationals who were then handed over to the relevant authorities.

Ms Perez said she heard about the accident from a relative living in Cuba. She said since the incident took place, she has not been able to find out where the young lady is being housed or speak with her over the phone.

“I got a phone call from my uncle in Cuba (telling me) that the government in Cuba came to tell him that his daughter had fled the country and he was unaware,” she said.

“...The vessel was en route to the United States probably to the Florida cays and something happened along the way, but nobody knows exactly because nobody has been allowed to speak to a single person that was on that boat. They have kept it in the dark,” she claimed.

Ms Perez said she believes officials suspect the vessel could have been involved in human trafficking. She said when she contacted the US Coast Guard to get more information, they told her they had nothing to do with the matter and she would have to get in touch with Bahamian officials.

“I had made calls to the hospital and the hospital confirmed to me she had been at the emergency room,” she told this newspaper.

“I spent two hours on the telephone (and) I was transferred to every floor (and) every ward where they have females. It had been already two weeks since the day of the accident and by the time I spoke with the last nurse, she told me ‘Sweetheart, if she only spent one day in the emergency room (before) she was placed in the ward, most likely she has been released, and as a Cuban national, she has to be at the Detention Centre.’”

Ms Perez said when she contacted the detention facility, she spoke with a supervising officer who informed her that her loved one was at the centre “safe, in good health and well taken care of.”

She said the officer told her she would only be allowed to have “one phone call,” but when she asked to speak to her relative that same day, she was told the phone was broken and she would have to call back another time.

“So, on Wednesday afternoon when I called the Detention Centre and spoke to the supervisor, she told me the phone is fixed but (she said) ‘I'm so sorry I made an error, she is not here,’” Ms Perez said.

“I said how can you tell me she is not there? I gave you the name three times, I gave you the date of birth and you confirmed to me very clearly that she was safe, that she was out of harm’s way…and that you were going to allow me to speak with her today, (so) what happened?”

Ms Perez said when she hired an attorney from Freeport to make inquiries into the matter, like her, he was initially told the Cuban woman was safe and would be allowed to speak to a family member but was later informed he was given the wrong information.

“(At first) I was so elated that she was alive...and that The Bahamas was keeping her safe because I would rather her be in The Bahamas than Cuba. In Cuba, she will be imprisoned, her life will be in danger, and she will not be allowed into the regular community anymore. . .and politically, her life is in danger if she goes back to Cuba so that is the reason why I am begging that they release her in The Bahamas.”

Ms Perez said she has already applied for political asylum for the woman in America and was prepared to assume responsibility for whatever expense it took to release the woman from the Detention Centre and provide her with living accommodations in the country until the relevant applications could be approved.

“Neither government has helped us,” she stated. “I’ve called the Cuban Embassy, I’ve called the Bahamian Embassy, I’ve called the US Embassy in The Bahamas, I’ve written to Washington, DC, the US Coast Guards—everywhere.

“There are no dead bodies except the one man that died but then at the same time, they’re hiding all these other individuals...Why after over 30 days, we’re soon going to be on two months, and not a single phone call has been allowed from us here in the States that we are paying for to speak to a family member?”

The Tribune understands Ms Perez has highlighted her appeal and concerns in a letter to Immigration Director Clarence Russell and is still awaiting a response.

However all attempts this newspaper made to contact Mr Russell were also unsuccessful up to press time.